Friday, April 20, 2012

Review - Left For Dead


Title: Left for Dead
Authors: JA Jance
Publisher: Touchstone (February 7, 2012)
Format: Audio
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Source: Library
Series: Ali Reynolds #7

When I first picked up this book, I was quite concerned since the previous book Fatal Error, was for me not up to the usual JA Jance standard.

I ended up enjoying Left for Dead from the very first paragraph. The Ali Reynolds’s feel was back, the story flowed and the subject matter was more believable.

Teenage Rose Ventana left her family’s home and became Breeze Domingo. Living a life of prostitution, she is traded to a horrible man when her pimp ran up a debt he could not pay. When Breeze outlived her usefulness, she is dumped in the desert to die. Barely alive, Rose is found by Alonzo Gutierrez, a border patrol agent, his superior’s fluff her off as just another illegal, but Alonzo knows differently and does a little investigating on his own.

Jose Reyes, a friend of Ali’s from the academy years is shot and left for dead, but there is something troubling when drugs and money are found in his trunk and somehow it is all tied back to a post office worker and his new lady friend.

Bring in Sister Anselm, a dear friend of Ali’s and in JA Jance’s usual fashion, the narratives are melded into one storyline and the reader has an ah-ha moment where everything comes together. Not always in a happily ever after ending, more along the lines of a “this is the best that we could hope for” moment.

Ali’s parents have also surprised the family with a big announcement that will surely bring more interest and challenge to her already full life. You never know what that Edie Larson will think up next and I look forward to seeing what direction this series will take.

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